United rewards employees and offers bag option

United Airlines has awarded US$125,000 to employees across the company for excellence in customer service as part of the company’s Outperform Recognition Program: a celebration was duly staged at George Bush Intercontinental airport in Houston.

Launched in June 2012, the Outperform Recognition Program invites customers who are MileagePlus members to nominate eligible employees for service at the airport, on the phone, on a flight or at any other stage of their travel with the carrier. Employees from all work groups, including pilots, flight attendants, ramp and customer service employees, may be nominated. The airline randomly selected 16 winners from more than 9,000 customer nominations submitted during the first four months of the program running.

Separately, United Airlines has launched a new baggage delivery option, enabling customers to have their checked bags delivered directly to their final destinations, within 100 miles of their arrival airport, thereby avoiding the baggage claim process. A single bag to be delivered within a 40 mile radius will cost just under US$30; an additional charge will apply for a more distant drop-off.

Baggage delivery by BagsVIP will initially be available to customers departing from any domestic airport and arriving in Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles and Orlando. The airline plans to expand the service to more than 190 domestic airports in the coming months.

 

 

Delta and Pinnacle: a joint future

The future of Pinnacle Airlines was up in the air at the start of the new year, when it was revealed that it could exit bankruptcy as a Delta Air Lines subsidiary. Delta’s potential ownership stake in this regional airline partner was simply one of several possibilities that had been suggested within agreements that currently await US Bankruptcy Court approval.

Some weeks later, Pinnacle Airlines confirmed that it would be emerging from bankruptcy as a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, based on a new agreement struck with the regional airline’s unsecured creditor’s committee, Delta and its pilot group.

“The reorganization plan will provide for Delta or an affiliate to acquire the equity in the reorganized Pinnacle Airlines Corp. after it emerges from bankruptcy,” Pinnacle stated in a press release. Although the new agreement is still pending court approval, the plan is for it to continue to fly under its own operating certificate.

Pinnacle has until mid-February to submit a reorganization strategy to the bankruptcy court. If all goes according to plan, the bankruptcy court could rule on Pinnacle’s reorganization scheme by May.

The whole of Pinnacle’s new common stock will be issued to Delta; indeed, Delta has served as Pinnacle’s debtor-in-possession lender throughout the entire reorganization process. The carrier agreed to issue US$74.3m in financing, a decision made last May, and has agreed to seek repayment in the form of exit financing and common stock to allow Pinnacle to emerge from bankruptcy.

 

Wildlife: a cause for concern?

The event last year at Tweed New Haven Regional airport has underlined once again the dangers posed by the environment immediately surrounding an airport.

In the case of Tweed, a deer bounded across the runway, just as a Lear Jet was taking off. Fortunately, the damage was limited to the aircraft and the deer, and the Lear’s occupants survived what could have been a fatal incident. The event has prompted the airport authority to erect fencing around the airport although it points out that there is a history of it working with the US Department of Agriculture in order to reduce the threat of wildlife colliding with aircraft.

The occurrence, though, is perhaps not so uncommon.

Bradley International, for example, had recorded 570 such incidents by the end of September 2012, whilst Denver International had logged a worrying total of 4,173.

 

Moving people in Florida

Orlando International has announced plans to build a new automated people mover system and parking garage to help cope with the growing levels of passenger traffic that it has been experiencing.

The new people mover system should be in operation by 2015 and will function as the terminal point for new passenger rail services into the airport. It will connect with a new parking garage, thereby providing the airport with additional capacity until the new south terminal is built in 2017.

The airport has said that this new people mover complex would allow private rail companies like All Aboard Florida to begin a passenger service between Orlando and Miami.

Gate catering for United

Late in 2012, gategroup announced contracts totaling more than CHF430m (US$462m) in revenues over the three-year life of the agreement signed with United Airlines. This award was part of a tender that covered the majority of United’s contracts with the gategroup brand, Gate Gourmet.

Gate Gourmet renewed more than 90% of its contracted revenue on tender. The contracts include extensions in catering and provisioning service at three of United’s core connecting hubs, at Chicago O’Hare, San Francisco and Washington Dulles, as well as further volumes in San Francisco and Washington Dulles.

In addition to the three hub locations, Gate Gourmet will continue to provide services to United in the following spoke cities, for which tenders were held: Columbus, Jacksonville, New Orleans and San Antonio. The agreements took effect in January this year and will run through to December 2015.

 

Guns: is the TSA over a barrel?

The Transportation Security Administration has revealed that it discovered more than 1,500 firearms at airport checkpoints in 2012, according to a report.

Despite the fact that travelers are forbidden to carry firearms on board aircraft (although they can be checked in, provided that counter staff are informed and that the weapons are unloaded and put into a secure, robust container), the 2012 figures exceed those of 2011, when just over 1,300 weapons were discovered.

The TSA spokesperson said that he assumed the vast majority were seized because people were unaware of the rules – a statement which seems to border on the naïve, given the high profile attached to guns in the wake of recent killing sprees in the US.

For the record, Atlanta came out with the worst statistics, with the number of guns found totaling 80 in all. Close behind in second place was Dallas.

 

 

 

Dispatchers join up

The flight dispatchers at Allegiant Air have voted to join Teamsters Local 986, the Teamsters Airline Division has announced. The flight dispatchers at Allegiant, a subsidiary of Las Vegas-based Allegiant Travel Company, are joining approximately 350 Allegiant pilots who voted to join the Teamsters back in August 2012.

In explaining the decision, dispatchers have said that they are looking for fair treatment, a strong voice relating to their work and the security of a Teamster contract.

 

No hassle endorsement

Airlines for America has firmly put its support behind the House of Representatives in its decision to pass the No-Hassle Flying Act (2012).

The act sets out to simplify and streamline the process of baggage security measures appertaining to international flights arriving in the US from Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean that already have US Customs and Border Protection pre-clearance facilities.

The bill duly went before the White House to seek Presidential endorsement, giving the TSA the right to decide whether supplementary baggage inspection is due on items that have already been screened at the start of their journey. Currently all baggage entering the US is subject to a second screening, regardless of its origin. Gaining approval, this new proposal was made law on December 13.

 

 

Topping up the pot

Once again we can report that airlines are doing rather well when it comes to the topic of ancillary revenue.

Data released by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics has revealed that Delta Air Lines had the second-highest operational profit margin among US airlines in the third quarter of 2012; moreover, it also accrued most checked bag-fee revenue, at US$233.1m.

Interestingly, all the major carriers recorded an operating profit during the third quarter of 2012 and analysts point to bag fees, seat allocation charges and meals as prime contributors to the collective bottom line.

Top of the pile was Alaska Airlines, which pocketed more than US$44m from baggage fees. This performance outpaced that of Allegiant and Spirit, airlines that have been much in the news of late because of their controversial extra fees.

Whilst this has been encouraging for the carriers which continue to battle against a volatile fuel market, the story won’t end here. Southwest, for example, has stated that it is to further augment its ancillary fee structure as 2013 unfolds.

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, over US$900m was collected in baggage fees by the industry in that third quarter, in addition to just over US$650m accrued from flight change fees. And all this doesn’t include other ancillary revenue which carriers are not obliged to report.

 

 

Fire detection a priority

The National Transportation Safety Board recently announced recommendations aimed at the reduction of harm caused by fires aboard cargo aircraft, a move that has been endorsed by a pilots’ union. The board urged the Federal Aviation Administration to require fire-suppression systems in all cargo compartments of aircraft and to improve fire detection within cargo containers and pallets. The recommendations follow three fire-related accidents worldwide during the last six years. One of these incidents involved a UPS freighter that crashed in the United Arab Emirates in 2010; on another occasion, a UPS aircraft caught fire in Philadelphia, back in 2006. A third example centered on an Asiana Cargo aircraft that was lost in the ocean off South Korea in 2011.

 

In brief

Signature Flight Support has announced that Airside FBO Operations, its second licensed location in Canada, has completed its transition to a full service fixed based operation as Signature Edmonton located at Edmonton International airport.